I pressed it against the glass.

I was holding the certificate in both hands now.

They wouldn’t stop shaking.

Victoria stood at the foot of the church steps with her coat open, talking with three women from the altar guild, and she wasn’t whispering.

I had my keys in my hand and forty feet of pavement to cross, and I caught every word.

“Twice in one afternoon she asked me what year Chloe was born,” Victoria said.

“Twice.